[andyalfa]

The problem
One dead Creative Zen Vision M 60gb, due to my dropping it onto a hard floor causing a disk error.

The solution,
Using insurance money and a little unspent Christmas money, buy a large capacity portable player which supports lossless for under £200.

Your suggestions...

 

[Ricardo Dawkins]

Options are:
- Archos (I think you need to buy the codecs)
- iPod
- Zune (if you can get one from Microsoft Zune Accessories - ZuneThings)

 

[walkingman]

I believe Flac codec is free on Archos.

 

[andyalfa]

How's the Archos sound quality? Aren't Zune's supposedly suspect build? Just something I heard. Happy to be wrong.

 

[my.self]

i think u can replace the hard drive on the ZVM to save some money. but...if u just wanna upgrade...i understand haha.

 

[ILikeMusic]

First, have you tried a complete reformat and reload of firmware? This might bypass the bad area on the disk. And if that doesn't work, replacement 1.8" 60gb drives aren't very expensive.

But yeah, if you want something new...

But the ZVM is a very good DAP, you're going to have a difficult time equaling it in a high-capacity unit.

 

[andyalfa]

I tried a full reformat of the disk (the music is backed up, mercifully) but that didn't work. Haven't tried the firmware though. I might give it a go, I don't have anything to lose.

I've always had Creative products in the past, and it was interesting to read that opinion is that they really are pretty damn good SQ wise. I think what I will probably do is replace it like for like if the firmware reload doesn't work.

The only drawback is the lack of support for lossless formats, but having spent 20 years standing next to very loud drummers, I probably couldn't tell the difference anyway.

 

[SawaFish]

You could take a look at the Cowon O2, supports allmost all formats, expandable (SD card) memory and standard up to 32gb flash memory.

It's lacks playlists and tag browsing though. And I'm not sure if it's under 200 pounds.